This weekend marked the 20th anniversary of the Santa Cruz massacre in East Timor. On November 12, 1991, Indonesian troops fired on a peaceful memorial procession in the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, killing more than 270 East Timorese. Two decades later, Amnesty International has called for a judicial inquiry into the massacre, noting that the failure "to hold all the perpetrators to account highlights a wider problem of impunity for...

On November 12, 1991 Indonesian troops fired on a peaceful memorial procession in a cemetery in Dili, East Timor, killing more than 270 East Timorese. Journalists Amy Goodman and Allan Nairn were beaten while reporting on the massacre. Watch the radio documentary they produced, set to video, on Democracy Now! in 2002.

Democracy Now! is in Argentina for the tenth World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters conference, an annual meeting of hundreds of community radio stations from around the world. Among those in attendance is Prezado Ximenes from Radio Lorico in East Timor. Nineteen years ago today in the Timorese capital of Dili, he survived the Santa Cruz massacre, in which Indonesian soldiers gunned down more than 270 Timorese. [includes rush...

If a volcano kills civilians in Indonesia, it’s news. When the government does the killing, sadly, it’s just business as usual, especially if an American president tacitly endorses the killing, as President Barack Obama just did with his visit to Indonesia.

President Obama arrived in Indonesia today on the second stop of a ten-day trip to Asia. It’s Obama’s first state visit to Indonesia after having lived there for four years as a child. We go to Jakarta to speak with investigative journalist and activist Allan Nairn, who has just released secret documents from Kopassus—the feared Indonesian special forces—which has been responsible for human rights abuses since the 1950s. Earlier...

We look at the case of Munir Thalib, an Indonesian human rights activist and a prominent critic of the Indonesian government and military. He was poisoned to death aboard a flight to Holland in September 2004. An off-duty pilot was found guilty for his death, but prosecutors ignored the findings of an independent investigation that pointed to the involvement of Indonesia’s State Intelligence Agency. We speak with his widow, Suciwati...

A leading TV news network in Indonesia is reporting the Indonesian military is planning to charge journalist Allan Nairn with “smearing [its] good name.” In an appearance on Democracy Now! last week, Allan exposed that US-backed Indonesian armed forces assassinated a series of civilian activists in the province of Aceh last year. Amy Goodman reached Allan earlier today just before going to air.

The health care legislative process and its frenetic endgame prompted the president to postpone a trip to the country where his mother raised him for several years of his childhood: Indonesia. While his health care bill is considered by many a huge step forward, Obama is simultaneously, and with far less scrutiny, potentially taking a huge step backward with Indonesia.

In Indonesia, investigative journalist Allan Nairn is facing possible arrest for exposing that US-backed Indonesian armed forces assassinated a series of civilian activists last year. Since Allan Nairn broke the news of the assassination program on Democracy Now! on Friday, the Indonesian press has been buzzing with the allegations. A military spokesman told the Jakarta Globe that the military is considering legal action against Nairn. Earlier...

In a Democracy Now! exclusive, investigative journalist and activist Allan Nairn reveals US-backed Indonesian armed forces carried out a series of assassinations of civilian activists in late 2009. The news comes as the White House moves towards increasing aid to the Indonesian military and lifting a twelve-year ban on the training of the notorious Indonesian military unit known as Kopassus. A US-trained Kopassus general who coordinated the...